Maratha

[Monk]

The Marathas Confederacy is one of the 12 major factions available for play.

[Alsn]

Some tips I learned from playing ~50 turns.

• The mughal empire is extremely weak in the begining and your capital city can spam hindu musketeers x3 every turn. Use these very good troops to quickly blitz through mughal territories. Don't bother capturing the small settlements because theyre not worth much before you get them upgraded.
• Mysore will eventually backstab you unless you make them love you but I'd say they're not worth your trouble. At around turn 5-6 they will have built up both the gold mine and the gem pit at which point it's time to pounce. Capturing their one and only settlement will give you another school and a territory worth roughly 6-7k gold before taxes.
• Science! Once you conquer the indian subcontinent you will have roughly 6-8 cities capable of making Raja's Observatory(the building which reqruits scholars, the eastern faction equivalent of gentlemen). Build these all over and see your tech rate skyrocket! At this point the game is pretty much won and you can do whatever you feel like.
• Remember to get a few trading partners in Europe. I partnered with Spain and France and was pulling in roughly 14k gold per turn from just my plantations(no trade fleets at all).

[Mazoch]

Maratha Campaign
The goal as the Maratha should be obvious from the beginning: Unite all of India under your rule and reverse the course of history by preventing the European powers from colonializing the sub continent. Instead claim the vast resources of India for your own and use them to build up the strongest, richest empire the world has ever experienced.

The Maratha starts with very little but have the potential to become the undisputed super power of the world in a few short decades.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The early years
In the beginning you start out with just two provinces, no navy and little to no research. You have a couple of small armies and at war with the Mughal Empire, easily five or six times your size.
During the first 20 or so years your bread and butter unit is going to be the Hindu Musketeers. While they are a little less accurate than the Baghir Musketeers they have a solid melee attack. This is invaluable since none of your infantry units are good enough to rely on their ranged ability alone. The Hindu musketeers allow you to mix it up in close range when needed. Back them up with some Cavalry Lancers for flank attacks and cutting down routed units.

Turn 1.
Start building as many Hindu Musketeers in your capital as you can (3 pr turn) and a at least a few units in Arcot to stave off the inevitable backstab from Mysore and the Portugese.
Your first order of business should be to start biting into the Mughal. From Satara, your capital strike north and take Ahmadnagar. It’s not well defended and you should be able to take it with the army from your capital. Second, use your two armies in the field to strike at Hyderabad.
At the end of turn one you should have doubled the size of your empire, and once repaired the new areas will help you keep your front lines supplied with fresh troops.

Turn 2-10
Moving ahead you should have three short term objectives:
1) Strike north to Ahmedabad. Taking Ahmedabad will block the Mughals access to the wester Indian Ocean. Doing so early will help prevent enemy fleets blocking your trade routes to Europe and Persia. In addition it will give you an extra trade port.

2) Mysore starts with only one province but is within easy striking distance of your capital. Sooner or later they will have to be dealt with. In addition they have both a gold and a gem mine which should help build up your economy.

3) The Portugese will have to go. Like the Mysore they are right in your back yard and they will eventually strike. Don’t give them time to build up and remove this European cancer from your land as soon as possible.

Taking the rest of India (Turn 20-40)
Once the Mysore and Portugese have been dealt with you will be in a much better position, you can concentrate on a single front and your expansion north. Keep churning out Hindu Musketeers and stay on the offensive. The longer you take to destroy the Mughal the more units you’ll have to go through.

One problem you will have to contend with will be the increased Islamic influence in the north. But down any Madrassa you find in the areas you conquer and consider building some religious schools of your own when you get the chance.

After the War
Once the last of the Mughal regions fall it will be time to harvest the fruits of your labor. Leave Persia, it will server as a good buffer between you and the Ottoman empire, I’d suggest leaving the Dutch in Cylon alone, they present no threat and a war could result in the Dutch blocking trade routes in Europe.

For now focus on reducing your military size. Leave enough to keep your regions under control and nothing more. Throw all your money towards upgrading your trade and economy. Build one or two new schools from the towns that will start to emerge (You should already have three or four research centers from the areas you’ve conquered).

Add extra religious buildings in the North Easter areas where the Islamic influence is greatest and where possible a pleasure garden in the areas with schools to counter the unrest that the schools will generate.

Build up your navy. You’ll need it to protect your trade lanes and eventually expand beyond the Indian sub continent. Work to establish trade routes with everyone, this will be what will make you the richest most powerful nation in the world.

Note. Once you claim the Northern areas you will also get access to your future ‘bread and butter’ unit, the Sikh Musketeers. They outclass the Hindu Musketeers in all areas except for melee combat, however with the benefits from research into fire arms and improved Bayonets these will be the best infantry India has to offer in the second half of the game.

The world is yours for the taking! (Turn 70+)
By now you should be far ahead of all others in research. Most if not all of your cities, towns and structures should be upgraded as high as possible. This in turn should make you very wealthy to the tune of generating a profit of 30-40.000 pr turn. Keep building up your Navy since it takes a lot longer than building up the army. Kill anything that threatens your trade routes (Don’t be afraid to send a naval squadron to Europe if necessary).

Congratulations you’re now the undisputed super power of the world. With an unrivaled economy and a massive homeland secure from any land based attack and the strongest navy in the world.

[Squints]

I kicked Portugal off the continent, but it came with some big problems - namely, Great Britain. They block any and all of my trade routes in Europe. Any suggestions?

[anweRU]

Try to buy off the British. Mix and match: state gifts, tribute, technology, Calcutta? Britain has been trying to buy Bengal Province from me for several turns...

[Major Robert Dump]

OR get the French on your side, and when the french and british start raping each others fleet make your move on the british ships

[burnout6]

i quickly took over southern half of india buying ceylon and goa. after that i forced a democratic revolution because i simply hated that flag. but i have a question. can maratha become a constitutional monarchy. i surounded hindustan with eveery unit i had built and killed the mughals took over persia made portugal my protectorate. i then quit my long campaign at 1760 after having my full goals plus six and looked up the video on youtube. yay i threw ou those filthy europeans

[oz_wwjd]

In my game I had issues with a HUGe pirate fleet sitting on my trade routes, which i threw my entire fleet of 6 3-rates,6 4h-rates and a 5th-rate at to try and remove them,but there galleon and flyute fllet was nastier than expected and smashed my fleet, Apart from that Portugal seems to be surving the war with spain someone and is being a rotal pain with blockading my trade routes,after they declared war with me and I brought 10 hindu musketters over from mysore which I had just taken and smashed them,not expecting them to hang around that long..

[Prussian to the Iron]

well, i have now conquered all of india, and the U.P.'s provinces and pirate provinces in america. blockading sweden, blockading U.P., and taken all of U.P's trade spots. I want to expand into europe via the south, but i would have to betray persia, and then either get an alliance with the ottomans to pass through to aattack the barbary states and morocco, or lose a chunk of my trade money DoWing on them. im not sure if georgia is still alive, but i would have nowhere to go after i conquered it.


so basically, my only option is to land naval invasions of minor countries. if i attack any major country (besides sweden, who everyone including me is at war with) i will have lost a $*^&-load of trade.

[oz_wwjd]

I'd advise dealing with persia asap. In my experience they will attempt to backstab you at some point,I'd advise dealing with them before they get any funny ideas.

[Prussian to the Iron]

really? theyve been my protectorate for like the whole game, and im in 1760